BSF vehicle crushed schoolboy’s foot and his dreams

SRINAGAR: Mushtaq Ahmad, a 21-year-old youngster from Srinagar outskirts desperately looks towards a crowd of chirpy students scurrying in the playground of their school. He religiously stands on the rooftop of his single storey house with a deep sense of loss. He could not engage in the bustle with his mates because of an enforced disability. Every time he watches youngsters play, he recollects the nightmare when a speeding Border Security Force (BSF) crushed him. He lost his foot and the taste of living a comfortable life.
“I wish I could be there enjoying studies and games,” Mushtaq said pointing towards the students. “I am unable to go to school, not even able to walk ten meters,” he said.
“I had dreams to fulfill and enjoyed my childhood days with friends and classmates But then, destination had something else for me,” Mushtaq said. But everything in his life went topsy-turvy when he met an accident outside his house in Anchar locality of Soura. “It was 2001. The accident changed my life entirely,” he said.
Recalling the horrible moment, Mushtaq said he was studying in third standard and had gone to school on that summer day in 2001.
“It was MayJpeg. I was happily talking to my friends while returning from school. I was just a few minutes away from my home when a speeding BSF vehicle came from nowhere. The vehicle sped over my foot and I fell down with excruciating pain,” he said. Next movement, he found himself at a bed in Bones and Joints surgery hospital at Barzalla.
“The BSF mobile bunker had crushed Mushtaq’s foot completely. Only blood soaked veins were visible. He was screaming with unbearable pain,” Mushtaq’s elder brother Bilal Ahmad, a furniture-maker, recalled.
“It pains if I put normal stress on my left leg. If, sometimes, I venture outside, I have to make sure I don’t exhaust my all energy in just going there. That forces me to limit my activities. But somehow, I could have managed to reach my nearby school but time to time treatment and hospital visits makes it near impossible for me,” he said.
Bilal said that the government force personnel turned out to be callous and did not show any remorse over the incident that shattered the entire life of a teenager.
“On the accident day, a few BSF personnel from Buchpora camp visited and offered a few pints of blood and a princely amount of Rs 80. They went away never to be seen again,” he said.
“We didn’t receive any compensation. We tried to file an FIR in police station Soura but gave-up because of some reasons. We attempted to go to BSF camps but they denied access,” he said.
“We have kept record of the expenditure on Mushtaq’s treatment. We have so far spent Rs 7 lacs but nobody from the government has come forward to help us out,” Mushtaq’s father Abdul Razaq said. Mushtaq has undergone seven major surgeries and more are required in the prolonged treatment. The family does not require any help from the government or its forces any longer. “They have disappointed us. We are tired now from police stations and forces camps. Our son’s recovery would have been a big gift for us. We wish he goes to school again and amuses with his old friends. Watching him lonely at home with broken foot pains us a lot,” Mushtaq’s family members said.

Journalism in Kashmir can be quite challenging as a career and Nazir Gillo has gladly accepted it given his liking and respect for this profession. Coursed accurately, Nazir made inroads in local print journalism by coming out with stories on diverse subjects ranging from politics to environment to education.

2 Responses to "BSF vehicle crushed schoolboy’s foot and his dreams"

It is sheer brutish to crush a Kashmiri youngster by BSF – isn’t it some revenge? Daily Kashmiri youth are being consigned to bullets of Indian forces; in 2011 on October 13, MEP Chris Davis, Chairman of Kashmir Case Hearing in the European Parliament had told Gen Rtd Ashok Mehta: India says Kashmiris are her nationals; why she is killing her own nationals if she consider them nationals; Pakistan Ambassador in Belgium Abbas Jilani, Kashmir representative AJK Premier Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan and from India Gen Rtd Ashok Mehta were sitting in the hearing; myself was sitting with international attendees including media persons in the front row in the Hearing Hall.

Indians and it’s troops here don’t want Kashmiris to stand on their own feets. If someone does, he is arrested, tortured, harassed, mutilated, killed rammed and what not.
The bleeding Kashmir needs attention, especially from international forums so that children like Mushtaq live their life with dignity and honor.

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Launched in May 2012, Kashmir Reader is one of the leading English language newspapers of Jammu and Kashmir. It’s published daily from Srinagar by Helpline Group, which earned a name and fame in serious journalism